Beating the odds in Battle of the Books
Posted on: Jan 9, 2020
With a robust field of 34 teams entering this year’s third grade Battle of the Books competition, the chance for any given set of participants to bring home a gold medal hovered somewhere just below 3 percent.
With a lot of studying and teamwork, however, Madelynn Knisley, Meredith van Bergen and Bergen Syverson overcame those odds to claim first-place in the finals competition on Thursday, Dec. 5.
“I don’t know why, but if it if it wasn’t a competition it would be different,” said van Bergen. “If it wasn’t a competition and we didn’t do as well as I was hoping it wouldn’t be that big of a deal. But we were fighting to do our best.”
Knisley agreed.
“If it wasn’t a competition it wouldn’t matter as much,” she said.
To compete, participants read from a list of 15 books over an eight-week period in October and November, then attempted to provide correct answers to questions selected from hundreds of possibilities. Three preliminary rounds whittled the contestants down to nine teams in the semifinals, and the top three teams from that round advanced to the finals.
While the three eventual champions said they were nearly nervous enough to cry in the beginning, they became increasingly confident as they earned success in each round.
“At the start it was just a new experience, something we hadn’t done before,” said Knisley.
“I think this is the least amount of cool-down that we’ve needed to digest that we just won,” said van Bergen after the championship round, adding that the team took first place each step along the way.
“When they announced second place it was just like, ‘Oh my gosh!’ We knew we had won,” said Knisley.
Team members each attempted to read all 15 books individually, then gathered to practice at Syverson’s home a number of times.
“We had meetings every Monday, and we tried to re-read the books,” said Syverson.
“Our strategy was definitely to try to read all of them because then you have three opportunities to try to get the answers right,” said van Bergen.
During the competition there were moments of debate among the team members, but someone was usually able to remember some defining details.
“Two of the books had a wedding in them, and that made it confusing,” said Syverson. “But I remembered that one of them had yellow dresses and the other had lavender.”
One focus of Battle of the Books is to expose young readers to multiple genres that they might not ordinarily choose on their own.
“Some of the books would have been on the bottom of my list at the school library, but they weren’t bad,” said van Bergen, adding that her favorites were
“Fudge-a-Mania” and “Ramona Forever.”
Those two books were Knisley’s favorites as well.
“They were both funny. The humor adds a lot to the books,” she said.
Syverson’s favorite books were “Seven Kisses in a Row” and “The King’s Equal.”
“They were just interesting,” she said.
In regard to the competition overall, the winners said their favorite part was working together as a team along with their three miniature mascots, gummy bears Bob, Battle and Books.
“According to us, they’re good luck charms,” said Syverson.
All three students said they enjoyed reading for fun outside of the competition as well, but that the event amplified that interest.
“You have to like reading to do this, but the feeling that I can finish 10-15 books in two months, that’s pretty cool,” said van Bergen.
Other winners
In the final round there were about five points of separation between each of the remaining teams. Second-place finishers were Alexa Huotari, Rose Lahti and Benaiah Gaalswyk. Third place went to Brady VanBeusekom, Cade Mathiowetz and Brayden Petersen.
Angela Kalthoff, gifted and talented coordinator for Delano Elementary, said each of those teams represented a different preliminary group, and that the final placing was an accurate reflection of their progress through the competition.
“(Knisley, van Bergen and Syverson) led the pack all along the way, but all three teams did really great,” said Kalthoff. “They were very good sports. And they definitely did their homework. I could tell that they had gotten together outside of school and they really did well. It was nice to see that they put the effort in and it was rewarded.”
Getting to the finals at all was an achievement, because the semifinal round was closely contested. There had been a tie for second place among the nine teams, and behind that pair was a three-way tie for third place.
“I’m very pleased with how it went,” said Kalthoff. “The kids who left (after the semifinals) who didn’t move on, you could hear them say, ‘I’ll be back next year. I’m going to do it again.’ Just knowing that they’re going to continue striving to do the contest whether or not they moved on, it’s encouraging to hear that they had a good experience and will continue to do it next year.”
While the winners deserve to be celebrated, Kalthoff said the big-picture objective is more about the process than the result.
“It’s really fun to have grandparents and parents come in, and to have the teachers bring their classes in too,” she said. “I think that makes it special. This is about encouraging reading, and it’s for any reader. It’s open to the whole grade. You don’t have to be a certain level of reader. I know parents who have read to kids out loud if it was a harder book. It just goes to show that anyone can do it.”
Post Categories: Elementary School